1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a television apparatus that receives television broadcasts and generates a program table on different channels, and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In digital broadcasting, program information (such as a broadcasting channel and a program title) is transmitted along with video data and audio data that configure program data. Such program information is used to generate an electric program guide (EPG) and a program table on different channels. The program table on different channels is an EPG that describes detailed information about programs on different channels that are being broadcasted concurrently with a program currently being viewed. A user can thus acquire information about the programs on different channels by displaying information about the programs on different channels without switching a channel. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-049398 discusses an information recording and reproducing apparatus that stores program data of an effective broadcasting channel at fixed time intervals. The information recording and reproducing apparatus then generates thumbnail images from the stored program data and displays the thumbnail images and the program titles in the EPG.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-027363 discusses a thumbnail generating apparatus which analyzes reproduced moving image data and generates the thumbnail image data based on frame information of the image in which a face is captured.
However, the information recording and reproducing apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-049398 does not use program information to generate the thumbnail image. The information recording and reproducing apparatus thus does not provide information about the programs on different channels according to user preferences. Further, since the information recording and reproducing apparatus uniformly and periodically checks and receives all channels without weighting the channels, the apparatus does not employ an efficient method of periodic reception. Furthermore, the thumbnail generating apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-027363 is only effective for recorded content and cannot be effectively applied to a program being broadcast on a different channel.